Game of Thrones: Breaker of Chains

Everyone is still playing the Game of Thrones, but the interesting thing this week is who actually still enjoys it.

In the immediate aftermath of the murder, Sansa flees and is lead to a ship by her fool of a savior. Littlefinger is aboard the ship, all whispers and lies. He reveals the method of the assassination, crystals on Sansa’s necklace, which was given to her not too long ago by that same fool. Then he all but admits to her that she was manipulated into looking guilty so she’d have no choice but to trust Littlefinger. Sansa has no love for the game of thrones, but Littlefinger is playing at a high level. He’s a man with little to lose and boundless ambition.

Margaery Tyrell and her grandmother are playing the game, but dear grandmother enjoys a bit more than Margaery, who’s luck in love has her thinking she’s cursed. If you rewatch last week’s episode, you can figure out how the crystal got from Sansa’s necklace to Joffrey’s wine cup. Now that’s playing the game. Funny that her name is Olenna Redwyne.

Olenna observes that Margaery still stands to become queen, since the Lannisters still need a Tyrell alliance. Only now they have a pliant, polite boy king, Tommen. He’ll be easier for both Marg and Tywin to control. At the sept where Joffrey’s corpse lies in state, Tywin gives Tommen some lessons on kingship. Holy, just, strong? Not bad qualities, but just part of the big picture. Wisdom is what you really need, and the wisdom to know what you don’t know is maybe the most important of all. Thank you Ser Donald of Rumsfeld.

Then Jaime shows up, sends everyone away, and rapes Cersei. Now, to be clear, there is no “best rape,” but this was clearly the worst rape. Raping your own sister about a foot and a half from the corpse of your dead incest child. This really has no parallel in the novels. I suppose it was intended to drive home the point that Cersei has truly lost all her power and influence. But one of the major character arcs in A Song of Ice and Fire is Jaime moving from “total asshole” to “someone you sort of respect a little, sometimes, maybe.” I don’t entirely see how “sister raper” fits that storyline.

Arya and the Hound are gradually moving toward the Vale. Arya is a bit of a harridan when it comes to the Hound, and it’s fantastic. She apologizes for his poor manners to the pleasant fellow who takes them in. He gets smacked upside the head and has his silver stolen for his trouble. It’s a wicked world.

There’s a sort of boring story about Sam being worried about Gilly getting raped at Castle Black, so instead he sends her to live alone in Rapetown, serving poop to the poop miners. Meanwhile, Stannis’ plans for becoming king bear little resemblance to reality. He’s broke and practically starving. Davros has an idea about dealing with the Iron Bank to get enough gold to hire mercenaries.

The centerpiece of the episode was a conversation in a whorehouse between Prince Oberyn of Dorn and Tywin Lannister. First, let’s take a moment to appreciate the redheaded whore. Now then, Tywin speaks plainly and denies giving the orders to have Oberyn’s sisters and her children raped and murdered. He offers a meeting with the man responsible, Gregor Clegane. In return, he wants Oberyn to be one of the judges at Tyrion’s murder trial, and to take a seat on the small council. Dorn is strategically vital, but the southern kingdom hasn’t played a strong role in Westerosi politics lately. They were the only house to resist Aegar Targaryan and his dragons, and Tywin believes their involvement is crucial to weathering the looming storms that appear about to beset the seven kingdoms.

There was a very poignant scene with a jailed Tyrion and Podrick. Tyrion keeps having to send his friends away for their own safety. He’s not enjoying the game of thrones very much these days. He correctly observes that suspecting him of killing Joffrey is ludicrous, since Tyrion is smart enough not to be standing there holding the murder weapon.

Danaerys has reached Mereen. The city sends out a champion, who insults her. Her champion is more pragmatic. She then gives an awesome speech to the slaves in Mereen, who suddenly eye their lords quite hungrily. Dany’s troops launch barrels into the city containing slave collars. Who will end up wearing those?

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Posted by Ed Grabianowski
on Sunday, April 20th, 2014. Filed under Dark TV, Headline.
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